Just Two Muzzylims & A Blog

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I’ve had the privilege of doing many remarkable things in my life. Meet Nelson Mandela, see the World Cup trophy in person and marry Mrs. Muzzylim come to mind. (Not in that rank order mind you). And just when it feels like asking for more would be downright greedy winter 2011 happened.

Being told we’re not going to be able to make it abroad to visit family was a kick in molars. But our backup ended up being two weeks in New York city. Queens specifically. Earlier in the year we were fortunate enough to get eleven days in the summer there – fully expecting that to be one of the last times we’ll get that extended a period of time to stuff our faces, eyes and ears with the sensorial smorgasbord that is NYC. As such we blitzkrieged NYC with like we were looting it. This time we took a different tact. No shopping, just food. Many a meal later we’ve returned to Blacksburg.

I’ve joked with Mrs. Muzzlylim (half seriously) that we ate so much amazing food that I feel like a goose engorged for foie gras. I’ve replaced the low quality fat for fine sea urchin, caviar and lobster. If eaten my cannibal would swoon with pleasure when they hit that fat pocket that owes its existence to Magnolia Bakery’s banana pudding (not unlike I am in thinking about it now).

A lot of people have a lot of different feelings when it comes to New York – and that’s really kind of the point of any great city. That wandering in is such a vast and diverse experience that you take your own bespoke labyrinth through it. Yet there’s a pretty safe bet it will leave you altered – hopefully for the better.

There is just no way we’re going to encapsulate all of that in a single post – which is why we’ll spend time blogging about it in doses over the next few weeks (and probably months knowing our pace 😛 )

The one larger realization of a trip like this for me is simple and quite corny. The right to travel and experience the world is a gift. Getting to travel and experience the world with someone you love is a blessing. Mrs. Muzzylim is a road bum I am honored to travel with. Footsore yet game. It’s symbolic that the capper of this trip was us celebrating our two year anniversary at the end of it. I can think of no better way to ring in a new year of our marriage together than by being exhausted from two weeks of great experience – and together. 🙂

Love to my wife of two years and my companion of two amazing New York romps.

– Mr. Muzzylim

PS: A special thanks to Bhai and Bhabi for opening up their homes and their hearts to us, their fly by night house guests. You are, simply, the best.

We all know that marriage takes work. But how often have you heard someone say:

“But they’re supposed to be in the Honeymoon Period???”

Let me clarify that myth. There is NO Honeymoon. Sure there are fun things about the early days. (Wow I really do have new and interesting insight about Neverending Story and Electric Company! Thanks for loving that about me!) But there are some darn tough things too. (Wait what do you mean by these eggs are delicious??? You hate them don’t you?!)

A wee bit into our marriage I realized that never changes. You’ll always have some things that take a little effort – and some things that’s are thankfully effortless. Whether you’ve been married a day or a decade.

So I implore you – those of you that have unmarried siblings, friends or bystanders that you hear say things like “aren’t the early days supposed to be easy?!?” – tell them sure. But it’s also supposed to be work at the same time.

If you get married expecting not to be challenged, to be pushed – you’re not expecting the right things.

But by the same token – you’ll be shocked at how easy some things you expected to be difficult just disappear into the ether (I could never share a bathroom or I can’t be one of those people that spends hours in the kitchen etc. etc.).

So maybe what I think you should advocate to people not in to know – the Honeymoon Period never ends!

My parents are visiting us. Which is always a blast. Lots of spicy food is cooked and consumed.

One of the things that invariably happens once you get married is that you begin to see your parents through your spouses eyes. Usually noticing the quirks you’ve stopped noticing completely. My father has a lot of those quirks.

One of those is his inability to eat a whole banana. Regardless of how small it is he will only eat half. I never really thought about this – chalking it up to eccentricity. Last night we were chatting when we brought up this habit of his.

It was then that he said that the reason he never finished a banana was that when they got married, 31 years ago, he noticed that my mother didn’t eat a lot of fruit. So he made it a point to take a banana after dinner every night and eat half and give her the other half.

The convenience of the banana’s perfect packaging and ability to share it with my mother is something I’ve seen him do hundreds of times. It never occurred to me that it was something he started as a small gesture of love for my mother. 🙂